Catamaran Hashira
Sun, surf, wind, rope … Blue and I did a Hashira partial suspension for the crew and passengers of a catamaran tour along the west coast of Jamaica, part of Swinkation 2025!
Halfway through the week at Hedonism II, the Swinkation schedule included a sunset cruise on the Caribbean for any who wanted to attend. It should be no surprise that almost all of the attendees opted in, including Blue and myself. And because our port of call was Negril Jamaica, the sun, heat, and humidity were all turned up to 11. I opted to stay in the shade as much as possible while the sun was high, though I did jump off the boat to swim through a sea cave with Blue. She was very happy to see some bats tucked away overhead as well as several little crabs … although a friend of ours who was not wearing water shoes accidently kicked a sea urchin stuck to one wall and subsequently had less of a good time.
The boat dropped us off to watch the cliff divers at Rick’s Cafe where Blue and I continued to swim around looking for interesting critters. After everyone had piled back onto the boat, I decided to give the crew something to look at (aside from all of the naked people on the boat). I had a nice solid pole to work with, so I put Blue into a nice little Hashira predicament using some synthetic rope in very appropriate colors. (Synthetic because of the humidity, water and salt.)
Blue and I had a lovely time at Hedonism II and thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of the attendees who made up this inaugural year of the Swinkation event (put on through the combined efforts of Swinky Life, The Accidental Swingers Podcast, and Concations).
Risk Management / Safety
Risks
This was intended to be a predicament tie and a partial suspension. However, Blue turned it into a full suspension at one point by pulling both of her legs up and sitting with her legs crossed midair. Tops be warned! Your rope bottom may decide to test their physical limitations in ways that could put their physical safety at risk. In this case, the knot I used to create the Hashira was quite stable and was able to stand up to Blue’s wriggling and bodyweight, but it might not have been the case if I had used a different approach.
When it comes to my personal risk profile, I prefer to be at least two failures away from disaster, so the Hashira Anchor point was backed up with a Klemheist Hitch … more about that in the annotations below!
Rope Needed
- Chest: One 30’ (~9m) rope
- Hips: One 30’ (~9m) and one 15’ (~4.5m) rope
- Arms/Hojo: One 30’ (~9m) rope
- Waist Upline: One 30’ (~9m) rope
- Hardpoint: One 30’ (~9m) rope
- Head: One 15’ (~4.5m) rope
- Waist: One 15’ (~4.5m) rope
- Thigh: One 30’ (~9m) rope
